The spokesperson of the Socialist Group in Congress, Patxi López, has acknowledged that the situation in Ceuta "is far from normal" after the recent migration crisis, although he defended that the Government acted "based on the information it had" at each phase of the episode.
During an interview on the program 'La Sexta Xplica', broadcast this Saturday, López admitted that "it is evident that when a crisis occurs, for the people who suffer it firsthand, it will always seem that everything done is insufficient, and I will tell those people that they are right. Surely more needs to be done, and surely things could have been done faster."
In relation to the declassification of intelligence reports about what happened in the autonomous city, the socialist leader pointed out that it is "an unprecedented exercise in transparency" and emphasized that none of those documents warned of the "magnitude" or "intensity" with which the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta occurred.
As he detailed, those reports do not include "an alert for this magnitude" and "some even speak of low or medium risk, at most," which is why he insisted that, had the true dimension of the episode been known in advance, "a different series of decisions would have been adopted."
At this point, he stressed that "if it had been said that there is a possibility of 80,000 people entering, a different series of decisions would have been adopted, although none would have been to go with weapons, with the Army, Police, or the Civil Guard to prevent that assault because then there would have been hundreds of dead."
López recalled that already in July, the presence of forces in Ceuta had been increased with more than 500 agents between the National Police and the Civil Guard, and reiterated that there is "no recognition of error in the chain of command" beyond the "need" to reinforce security devices against the so-called "hybrid attacks."
Questioned about whether the Executive reacted late and whether the president of the Government should have interrupted his vacation, the socialist spokesperson defended that Sánchez "no matter how much he was in a vacation destination, did not stop being connected to this issue for a minute." Furthermore, he highlighted that "not only was security reinforced with more agents," but also spaces were enabled to process the files "one by one" and funds were allocated to support the Ceuta economy.
Likewise, he has endorsed that the "subjective" perception of insecurity that, according to the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, exists among part of the population of Ceuta, coexists with indicators that, he has stated, "do not say that an alarming insecurity situation is being experienced" in the city.
At another moment in the interview, López reproached the autonomous communities governed by the PP for their refusal to collaborate in the distribution of migrant minors. "What are the autonomous communities governed by the Popular Party doing to help resolve this crisis?" he questioned, before emphasizing that "the only one that has come forward" to offer to host minors "has been Navarra," where the PSOE governs.
The spokesperson added that, in his opinion, those who should leave their positions are "all those who instead of providing solutions to this crisis, seek to take advantage of it."
Regarding the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, López admitted that Puente's "is not his way of doing politics" and ruled out that he could be the successor to Pedro Sánchez at the head of the PSOE. "I see Pedro Sánchez as Pedro Sánchez's successor," he concluded, ruling himself out as well as the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, as possible successors.